Doreen Ware of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, led scientists from seven academic institutions and several genome technology companies in the project that produced a much more detailed reference genome for maize, or corn. According to Ware, the new genome for maize shows the plant's flexibility, which explains why maize has been successful since its adaptation thousands of years ago.

We are what we eat, but what we eat may need to change. That’s because of what’s happening to our planet and what we’re learning about the microbes in our gut. How can genebanks help? Climate change predictions vary, but they don’t seem to be getting any more optimistic. Severe yield losses are plausible around the world, and severe climate change may transform the agricultural map in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and Central America.

A new guide by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) urges child labour concerns be integrated in agriculture, food security and nutrition programs during crises and disasters, and was presented today to mark World Day Against Child Labour. Around the world, 100 million children and young people are affected by disaster each year and 230 million live in areas affected by armed conflict.

Large agricultural harvests in some regions of the world are buoying global food supply conditions, but protracted fighting and unrest are increasing the ranks of the displaced and hungry elsewhere, according to the new edition of FAO's Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.

Seeds of climate-resilient rice varieties, cost-effective management technologies, and innovative extension approaches are among the advances that are making significant inroads to improve rice production in the Indian state of Odisha on the country’s eastern coast. This was revealed during the first annual review workshop of the collaborative program between Odisha and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), held 23 May.

The Institute of Agricultural Genetics (AGI), a joint laboratory of AGI, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (RIKEN CSRS) hosted the symposium on Current Advances of Genome Editing Technology and its Application in crop improvement on May 12, 2017 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The presentations revealed the tremendous potential and promise of genome editing technology as an advancement in plant breeding.

Salk scientists found gene variants that help plants thrive in low-iron environments, which could help improve farmers' yields and provide richer dietary sources of iron for humans and animals. The study is published in Nature Communications. Salk's associate professor Wolfgang Busch and other researchers from Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology used Arabidopsis seeds from strains in Sweden, which are exposed to soils with varying iron concentrations.

"I believe in green energy, green agriculture, and a green economy. We can waste no more time, let us fight together for our planet, " said French ambassador to Uganda, Ms. Stephanie Rivoal, while speaking on behalf of the European Union at the World Environment Day celebrations in Ibanda district on June 5, 2017.

A new CCAFS paper discusses five methods to analyze the multiple dimensions in which climate change, agriculture and food and nutritional security are related. One of the constant threats to food and nutritional security (FNS) is climate change. Exploring how this vulnerability manifests itself has been of interest to science, which has mainly focused on the interaction between these two events through agricultural production.

FAO 1 June 2017, Oslo -The Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, an international treaty aimed at stopping rogue fishing practices, gives the world "all the instruments necessary to achieve our goal," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said here.